McConnell joins Boehner on tax talk

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is backing Speaker John Boehner’s call for House-Senate negotiations on the payroll tax cut, raising the stakes in the partisan fight.

The Senate on Saturday - with backing from McConnell and the rest of the Senate GOP leadership - passed a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, as well as unemployment benefits and language calling for President Barack Obama to make a decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

Story Continued Below

But House Republicans angrily rejected the Senate proposal during a GOP conference call on Saturday, and Boehner has called the House back into session this week.

During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Boehner said the House and Senate should work out a year-long extension of the payroll cut. The House has already approved such a measure.

Now McConnell is supporting such negotiations, and the two GOP leaders are trying to up the stakes for President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats in the tax battle.

“The House and Senate have both passed bipartisan bills to require the President to finally make a decision on the Keystone XL jobs, and to extend additional unemployment insurance, the temporary payroll tax cut and seniors’ access to medical care,” said a statement from Don Stewart, McConnell’s spokesman.

“The House and the President both want a full-year extension. The best way to resolve the difference between the two-month extension and the full-year bill, and provide certainty for job creators, employees and the long-term unemployed, is through regular order, as the Speaker suggested.”

Boehner’s remarks drew a harsh response from the White House later Sunday.

“It’s time House Republicans stop playing politics and get the job done for the American people,” according to a statement released by White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has already said no to such negotiations, and both sides are ratcheting up their spin machines to see who wins - and who takes the bigger political hit - if the payroll tax extension is not enacted. 160 million Americans would get hit with a $1,000 tax increase starting on Jan. 1 if the extension is not passed.

“Instead of threatening middle-class families with a thousand-dollar tax hike, Speaker Boehner should bring up the bipartisan compromise that Senator McConnell and I negotiated, and which passed the Senate with an overwhelming majority of Democratic and Republican votes,” Reid said in his own statement.

“I would hate to think that Speaker Boehner is refusing to act on this bipartisan compromise because he is afraid it will actually pass, but I cannot imagine any other reason why he would not bring it up for a vote.”